I read about two more black men whose names were added to that tragically long list of black people shot by cops in America without provocation. They shut down Beyoncé, and Lebron James and Jesse Williams for being too political, not realising or pretending to not realise that it’s not an airy abstract philosophical concept, but a living fear of immediate death that plagues the lives of people of colour; that they are a part of the problem. They will continue to live in their bubbles pretending that the death of yet another man due to his race is actually just another exception.
I read about Oscar Pistorius, who after a long trial that grabbed headlines was sentenced to six years in jail for killing his girlfriend. Six years for a life because he was a celebrity, not because South Africa is always kind and humane towards it’s convicts. I have often come across arguments by MRAs where they argue that women get shorter jail sentences. I agree with them. Women do tend to get shorter jail sentences. But I would also like to bring up another related point that I have noticed over years of newspaper reports-crimes against women by men are likely to lead to shorter sentences. And I want people to fight for both of these issues.
I turned another page, and I came across another report, this time of a local man from New Delhi who was arrested for harassing 1500 women. Is it normal to find people who have harassed 1500 people? No. Is it normal to find people who have harassed two people? Yes. And that is the problem. So often is stalking, harassment and lewd language normalised in our society that we don’t even realise what toxic environment we have created for ourselves–not till a man harasses 1500 women and makes it to the headlines, and even then it is not the act of harassment that gets condemned but rather the statistic. Those numbers fail to capture the fear, irritation, hassle, anxiety caused to women who were trying to study/work/deal with illnesses/ mental disorders/ social expectations/death of a loved one: any number of situations. They fail to express what they lived through. They serve as just another figure in print: ineffectual, sometimes even a kind of perverted accomplishment because look at this man, he harassed the largest number of women a man has ever harassed.